Ken’s Taxi service scolded over alleged practices

Wednesday

Feb 13, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

After years of hearing excuses and “he said/she said” arguments from Ken’s Taxi /Classic Cab over complaints from customers — several of them elderly and disabled — the License Commission has told the company’s owner and manager it is time to shape up and change their policies.

Furthermore, Chairwoman Melissa Maguire said Monday night, the company may have violated the civil rights of a disabled senior citizen it banned from using the taxi service — the only one in the city — after he complained to the commission about the company overcharging seniors.

After hearing complaints about long wait times and lack of professionalism, Kenny Bergeron Jr., the company’s business manager, told commissioners dispatch is a tough job. He said he would like to see anyone do it for a day to see firsthand how tough it is. The issues commissioners had with the business, Mr. Bergeron said, were merely “facts of the cab world.”

“It is hard to find good dispatchers who know the city and can handle multiple calls,” Mr. Bergeron said. “I call on anyone to sit there for a day and give it a whirl. It is frustrating at times. … People do wait.”

Owner Robert Soto said dispatchers are trained for two weeks. It is impossible, he said, to take appointment times to pick up customers.

However, commissioners weren’t buying it.

Commissioner James J. Kelly Jr. told the men the company had established a pattern of being “rude, rude, rude.”

“How do you fix it? It is a pattern. It is continuing,” Mr. Kelly said.

Ms. Maguire said it was mindboggling to her that the men were able to stay in business at all.

“You’re telling us, ‘Oh, well. They (dispatchers) are frustrated.’ I have a real problem with that,” Ms. Maguire said. “I need to keep my temper down. I’m having a problem here. … You’re asking us to increase rates, when the service is being complained about.”

Commissioners said the men seemed to have the attitude that they could treat customers any way they pleased because they are the only taxi service in Leominster.

Mr. Bergeron and Mr. Soto, commissioners said, were running a service industry in the city and it was the commission’s job to protect the citizens of Leominster. And yet, commissioners said, the men were condoning the way dispatchers were treating their customers.

“You’re saying it is OK to treat customers that way,” Ms. Maguire said. “You don’t treat customers well, and we’re supposed to say, ‘Sure. Go ahead and jack your prices up.’? I’m having a real problem with that. You think your job is frustrating? I’m pretty sure there are jobs that are way more frustrating than yours.”

In recent letters to the commission, one man complained of getting screamed at by a dispatcher for calling out of concern for an elderly neighbor who had waited more than an hour and a half for a cab. Another letter from a woman said her 89-year-old mother was mistreated and then abandoned by the taxi company at the hospital.

And James V. White, a 70-year-old disabled man who complained to the commission about the company overcharging seniors, wrote that he was refused a ride from his home on Water Street to Dunkin’ Donuts, about 1.5 miles away. The dispatcher told him, he said, he was “not allowed to pick him up anymore.” The next day, Mr. White had to walk to an appointment at the hospital while fasting and tired.

“I feel I was discriminated against for speaking up about improper rate charging practices against seniors,” Mr. White said.

“There could potentially be a civil rights issue,” Ms. Maguire said.

However, the men said Mr. White was banned from the service because he asked too many questions and made some of the drivers nervous.

Mr. Bergeron said the company is privately owned and has the right to refuse to provide service to anyone it chooses.